MIAMI – April 3, 2015 – Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) announced the acquisition of three new works by African American artists Terry Adkins, Ed Clark and Leslie Hewitt at the Second Annual Reception for the PAMM Fund for African American Art. The reception was held at PAMM on Thursday, April 1, 2015 in celebration of the fund’s inaugural year.

Members of the PAMM Ambassadors for African American Art and invited guests as well as Pérez Art Museum Miami Ambassador Co-Chairs Marilyn Holifield and Barron Channer, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation President and CEO Alberto Ibargüen, PAMM donor Jorge M. Pérez, Miami-Dade County Commissioner Xavier Suarez, Congresswoman Frederica Wilson, City of Miami Commissioner Keon Hardemon, former president and chief executive officer of National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Ben Jealous, collection artist Ed Clark, and Merele Adkins, widow of collection artist Terry Akins, attended the event which featured performances by Peter London Global Dance Company and jazz musicians throughout the museum’s galleries.

The PAMM Fund for African American Art was initiated with a $1 million grant funded equally by Jorge M. Pérez and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to support the growth of the collection of Miami's flagship museum with works by African American and African Diaspora artists. It is supported and sustained through the museum’s acquisition group, the PAMM Ambassadors for African American Art. Through the fund, the museum has previously acquired works by Al Loving, Faith Ringgold and Xaviera Simmons.

“Our goal is to make art general in Miami, which it means that it must be general in all communities,” said Alberto Ibargüen, Knight Foundation president. “The Fund for African American Art is acquiring world-class works by African American artists for Pérez Art Museum Miami, and giving people of all backgrounds an opportunity to engage in the acquisition process."

The artworks by Terry Adkins, Ed Clark and Leslie Hewitt represent a variety of artistic practices, ranging from sculpture and painting to photography. The artists explore a range of subjects relating to art and materiality, history and the African Diaspora, thereby adding important voices to the contemporary African American dialogue in PAMM’s permanent collection.

Terry Adkins’ Beahearer, 2014, a wall-based sculpture, showcases the artist’s practice of working with found objects and his central interests in music, sound and history.

Ed Clark developed a unique painting method using unprimed canvas and a broom that combines painterly, sculptural, and performative techniques to create energetic compositions filled with texture and movement, which is exemplified by Pink Wave, 2006,

Leslie Hewitt’s Untitled (Median) is part of the Series Still Life, 2013. The large framed photographs explore the paradoxical nature of photographs as well as racial politics in the United States and the relationship between individual experiences and broader social contexts.

The new acquisitions join other significant PAMM collection works by African American artists such as Lorna Simpson, Carrie May Weems and Rashid Johnson, and continue PAMM’s long-standing commitment to exhibiting and collecting the work by African American artists, celebrating their critical contributions to contemporary culture and reflecting the diversity of the local community and range of cultures that make up Miami.

About PAMM:Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) promotes artistic expression and the exchange of ideas, advancing public knowledge and appreciation of art, architecture, and design, and reflecting the diverse community of its pivotal geographic location at the crossroads of the Americas. This mission is reflected in the initial installation of its permanent collection of art from the World War II era to the present, AMERICANA, at the new home of the 29-year-old South Florida institution formerly known as Miami Art Museum (MAM). Designed by world-renowned architects Herzog & de Meuron, the facility opened in Downtown Miami’s Museum Park on December 4, 2013, is a state-of-the-art model for sustainable museum design and progressive programming. The facility features 200,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor program space with sprawling galleries; shaded outdoor verandas; a waterfront restaurant and bar; a museum shop; and an education center with a library, media lab, and classroom spaces. For more information, please visit www.pamm.org, find us on Facebook (facebook.com/perezartmuseummiami), or follow us on Twitter (@pamm).